The Michigan Dental Association Foundation has awarded Hope Dental Clinic with a Michigan Dental Association Foundation Access to Care Grant. Hope Dental Clinic is part of Hope Medical Clinic, a non-profit organization, located in Ypsilanti, Mich. 

According to Dr. Joan McGowan, chair of the Foundation’s Grant Administering Committee, Hope’s goal is to provide compassionate and practical help to those in need, ministering to the whole person. Hope’s services include free dental and medical clinics, a food bank, weekend meal program, free laundry facilities, and emergency financial assistance to prevent shutoffs and evictions. 

Catherine Robinson, executive director of Hope Clinic, said the Michigan Dental Association Foundation Grant will be used to support the dental clinic’s expansion by funding increased dental supplies, such as dental amalgam, primer, bond, X-ray film, and sterilization bags.

The dental clinic has been providing general preventive and restorative care at no charge to low-income, uninsured children and adults in Ypsilanti and the surrounding areas since 1993. The need for dental care among low-income residents of southeastern Michigan is large and growing larger due to the combinations of high unemployment and low job growth, Robinson said.

In an effort to meet the growing need for dental care, Hope Dental Clinic is expanding and scheduled to open a new facility in 2010. With the increase in space, the hope is to increase the services by 75 percent. In 2008 Hope Dental Clinic provided 4,382 patient visits and 75 specialty referrals to 1,375 low income uninsured adults and children, which was a 60 percent increase in patient visits over the previous year.